Better with time

Tony Sowers knows what Kyle Parker did for the Bartram Trail baseball team during the season.

But it took Sowers a full month after the best run in the Bears' seven-year history to really know what Parker did.

For starters, The St. Augustine Record St. Johns County baseball player of the year led Bartram to a 26-3 record, averaged 1.6 RBIs a game and batted .438 in his junior season.

Parker, a second baseman who goes by the nickname KP, had a slugging percentage of .904 and drove in 42 runs. His seventh and final home run of the season was a bomb to dead center field off of Milwaukee Brewers fifth-round draft pick Caleb Gindl of Pace in the Class 5A regional semifinal.

It was one of the most dominant individual seasons that Sowers, a 15-year coaching veteran can recall.

He doesn't hesitate to put Parker among the likes of Chris Barnwell, Troy Bowden, Wes Burgess, Jeff and Kyle Millsaps or Jeremy Brand as one of the best players he's ever coached.

"When I look back at the numbers, it's even better," Sowers said.

"Some of the big hits he got were just phenomenal, more incredible when I think back about them."

Parker had one of the best all-around seasons that Sowers has been apart of, despite missing three games because he was out sick.

And to think, baseball is Parker's fallback sport. He verbally committed to play football at Clemson last February.

"I haven't really had a chance to think about the season," Parker said. "Looking back on it, I thought had a pretty good year. That's a credit to the people in front of me. That was the thing this year. I didn't leave a lot of people on base."

Parker was good at clearing the bases. One swing in particular stands out in detail to Sowers.

He hones in on a game early in the season at Jacksonville Wolfson, when the Bears trailed 2-0. Parker came up with the bases loaded.

"He's up there fighting, he fouled off a couple," Sowers said, "then hits a one-handed ball in the gap. We take the lead. I mean, what can you say?"

The Bears wouldn't lose a game on the road all season, ultimately earning the No. 1 ranking in Class 5A. Bartram All-County pitcher Travis DeBee said Parker could overwhelm teams and that became infectious.

"A lot of games could've gone either way and KP would have a big home run or a big double and it completely changed the momentum around," DeBee said. "Everybody fed off of him. He always had the potential to do something."

Bartram's lineup was stacked, finally catching up to its customary stash of good pitchers.

The team batting average was .337, tops in program history and nine players batted .300 or higher. Parker said the difference between his sophomore season (he batted .342 with 15 RBIs and two homers) was patience.

"The biggest thing I could say I changed was really my confidence level," said Parker, a three-year starter who batted just .238 as a freshman.

"I've been there so long playing varsity that I've seen every type of pitch. I didn't think I was overmatched at all. Probably the thing I thought about the most was looking for a pitch I could hit."

Parker said his production was enhanced since it came on the heels of the worst year in Bartram history. The Bears went 8-19 in 2006, but made an 18-game improvement.

"I guess you could say that kind of motivated us as a team," Parker said. "We tried not to think back even though it was in the back of our mind."